David Chytraeus or Chyträus (26 February 1530 – 25 June 1600) was a German

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, reformer and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

. He was a disciple of Philip Melancthon. He was born at

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. His real surname was Kochhafe, which in

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is χύτρα, from where he derived the Latinized pseudonym "Chyträus". Chytraeus was professor of the

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and one of the co-authors of the

Formula of Concord Formula of Concord (1577) (; ; also the "''Bergic Book''" or the "''Bergen Book''") is an authoritative Lutheran statement of faith (called a confession, creed, or "symbol") that, in its two parts (''Epitome'' and ''Solid Declaration''), makes up ...

. He is known for his work as the author of a Protestant catechism. His original Latin text was published in 1554, then reprinted in 1599. Now it has been translated for the first time in German. It has been published, together with editorial notes and commentary by Michael. The Protestant estates of

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, in the person of Leopold Grabner zu Rosenburg, Rüdiger von Starhemberg and Wolf Christoph von Enzersdorf, invited Chytraeus in 1568 at the instigation of Emperor Maximilian II so that he could work out a church order and an

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for them. He is the author of a treatise on music, ''De Musica'', and a theological treatise, ''De Sacrificiis''. In August 1598, a Scottish diplomat,

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came to Rostock and discussed objections raised by

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to Chytraeus's writings concerning

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. Chytraeus is said to have sent an amended version.Michael Pearce, "Riddle's Court, Banquet and Diplomacy in 1598", ''History Scotland'', 12:4 (July/August 2012), p. 25. David Chytraeus died in

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

, aged 70.

Notes

References

* Joachim Burmeister, ''Poétique musicale. Suivi de David Chytraeus – De la Musique'', translation, introduction, notes and lexicon by Agathe Sueur and Pascal Dubreuil, Rhuthmos, 2017.
The Protestant Theological and Ecclesiastical Encyclopedia
by John Henry Augustus Bomberger, 1860, p. 714.

article in Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge
David Chytraeus 1531–1600: Biography by Nathaniel Biebert
1530 births 1600 deaths People from Ingelfingen 16th-century writers in Latin 16th-century German historians German Lutheran theologians Academic staff of the University of Rostock 16th-century German Protestant theologians German male non-fiction writers 16th-century German male writers {{Germany-historian-stub 16th-century Lutheran theologians 17th-century Lutheran theologians